Chrissaf Posted July 13, 2019 Share Posted July 13, 2019 Great review Rob, as expected given your technical expertise. In a way I wish my layout was a different era so I could justify getting one. Well done. R- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2e0dtoeric Posted July 14, 2019 Share Posted July 14, 2019 I've been pondering on getting one since they were first advertised, but can't really justify the expense, just for me to see.-Very strange audio on that first 'play me' demo link - it sounds just like rumbling/gurgling intestines! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Souty Train Guy Posted July 14, 2019 Share Posted July 14, 2019 Great review, but I can't get around the price their asking for a programmable LCD display. Personally, I would have bought a different LCD screen to avoid costs, and mounted a programmed Raspberry Pi Zero (which is already programmed for a different LCD display) under the board. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
96RAF Posted July 14, 2019 Share Posted July 14, 2019 Very strange audio on that first 'play me' demo link - it sounds just like rumbling/gurgling intestines! There wasn’t supposed to be any audio, as the first pass was spoiled by kids playing in the street right outside the trainroom door. Maybe the gurgling was because it was just before lunch. Another video has the radio playing in the background. As it is wallpaper music you tned not to notice it until too late. I will redo the video clips when I get round to sorting out my proper video camera. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2e0dtoeric Posted July 16, 2019 Share Posted July 16, 2019 😛 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrainDriverJ Posted November 26, 2019 Share Posted November 26, 2019 I was at Warley and came across the Model Bus Federation stand. They had a screen that looks identical to the train-tech version and was being used as a destination screen inside an OO gauge double deck bus. I asked how this had been done as it was remarkable for such a small very clear screen to be added to such a small model. He told me that the screens can be obtained on line from China for £3.00 (yes £3.00) and the controller board for £5.00 approx. He said the screen itself could be peeled back without breaking and the rest of the ‘gubbings’ installed in the bus. The screen had to be programmed and this was done via a computer. Apparently there was a program available to do this that was semi intuitive and didn’t involve writing code. The bus destination blind was there changing destinations, scrolling etc. He indicated this method could easily be adapted for a train layout situation and or sides of modern model trains to great effect at a fraction of the cost. I personally wouldn’t follow this up at this stage but thought I would leave a note here so that if anybody was interested, and has the expertise (as I do know the pros and cons), they might want to do a bit of research or evaluate whether this would be worth it. Unfortunately it was only later I thought it would have been good to take a picture. Sorry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
96RAF Posted November 26, 2019 Share Posted November 26, 2019 The beauty of the Train-Tech screen is it has a DCC decoder built into the already small footprint.More info on the bus screen would have been useful - say a link to the associated website. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Augustus Caesar Posted November 27, 2019 Share Posted November 27, 2019 Interesting... looked at one of these in Glasgow earlier in the year and fancied getting one there and then - but the price was a bit inhibitive. Like the review very much Rob and will keep my eyes peeled for more info.That cheaper version may be worth a look but it much depends upon what it is doing compared to this Train-Tech model. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
96RAF Posted November 27, 2019 Share Posted November 27, 2019 Rudy Bauer used a similar screen in his continuing and excellent Arduino projects series - links found on several forums. I can’t rationalise the size of his screen to the TT one but his seems to be configurable to pixel level as he shows a stationary analogue clock and available in various colours.The TT variant as I said has all the working gubbins on the unit, hence it is very compact if mounting inside a vehicle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrainDriverJ Posted November 27, 2019 Share Posted November 27, 2019 I have looked in my catalogue and unfortunately there is no contact details for his stand. However, I do remember him saying something about Karens eshop on ebay. So I have had a look and it does appear that this page sells miniature OLED screens. Also if you search OLED mini display it comes up with many more. In his set up he had a screen that had been peeled back from its board which he said was ok to do. He could plug it into a controller board that linked to a computer so you could program it. He said you did not need programming knowledge as you could download a program that was user friendly to do the programming. Sorry, I do not know any more about this aspect as I wanted to keep moving and see everything that was on offer at the show!https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/karens_e-shop/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from= Maybe you could have a look and see if this is useful to anybody. I just thought at the time due to the price some people would be able to make some good use of these items and information. They certainly looked impressive inside his model bus and they didn’t look dissimilar to the Train-Tech ones to me. Believe me they were small and crystal clear. They were scrolling and changing etc. Of course they would not be DCC but you still might be able to use them separately and program them and still have several of them effectively set up static on stations, or billboards, information screens, sides of trains etc. for a small price. This stuff looks so good that I’m sure much more of it is going to surface in the near future and everybody will have one for all sorts of projects. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
96RAF Posted November 27, 2019 Share Posted November 27, 2019 Going on from your link, which shows a 2.5” wide screen, then using oled display as the parameter I got these https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/m.html?_odkw=oled+display+i2c&_ssn=karens_e-shop&_armrs=1&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=oled+display+i2c&_sacat=0 The smallest looks to be 0.9” wide but quite deep and all require Arduino as the operating medium, some with the popular 1C2 interface bus.The 128 x 64 pixel size matches the Rudy project. As you say if the price came down . . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
96RAF Posted December 3, 2019 Share Posted December 3, 2019 ... Can we have wifi connection over there? Not convinced I have a clue what you are on about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrissaf Posted March 2, 2020 Share Posted March 2, 2020 I wasn’t sure where to lodge this as it sits in DCC, RM and Off Topic areas. For the interest of those looking at maybe buying one of these remarkable Train-Tech Smart Screens I decided to write up a review about it. The review shows how the screen can be made to interface in various ways with RM and includes short video clips of the screen working. For those interested it can be found here http://www.halton96th.org.uk/smart-screen.html As part of the review I also trialled a clever Visual Basic app developed by our very own St1ngr4y which greatly simplifies the actual programming of messages to the screen. At present this works with Elite but Ray is working on getting it to work with eLink and maybe other controllers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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